Ethnic differences in achievement

Question 1

Cultural deprivation (EXTERNAL)

Answer 1

• LINGUISTIC DEPRIVATION - Some have argued that pupils who have English as an additional language often have lower levels of achievement
  when starting school than those whose first language is English.
  AO3: A report from the Department for Education found that students whose first language wasn’t English did better in the eBacc than those whose first language was English
• FAMILY STRUCTURE - as black ethnic groups have a higher level of single-parenthood than other ethnic groups, MOYNIHAN argues that this leaves children (especially boys) without a positive male role model, and that single-parent families are ineffective at socialising children properly. This causes children from these families to underachieve in education as they don’t have the right values to do well in school.
  AO3: However, some sociologists point out that while female headed single-parent families wouldn’t provide black boys with a positive male role model, they would provide a positive role model for black girls.
• SEWELL argues that peer pressure from other black boys is the main reason for black male underachievement. He argues that due to a lack of a
  ‘tough love’ father figure, black boys looks for role models in gangs which have an anti-school attitude.
  AO3: GILLBORN argues that institutional racism is the main cause of underachievement of black boys.

Question 2

Material deprivation (EXTERNAL)

Answer 2

ethnic minorities are almost twice as likely to be unemployed than white people, and are about three times more
likely to be homeless.
Ethnic minority parents are more likely to suffer racism in housing and employment, meaning they end up in poorer homes and in low paid jobs or being unemployed

Question 3

Labelling and teacher racism (INTERNAL)

Answer 3

• GILLBORN & YOUDELL found that teachers expected black students to be disruptive and misinterpreted their behaviour as threatening, causing
  conflict with the teacher. Black pupils felt picked on, causing a self-fulfilling prophecy in which black students would underachieve due to the
  ideas about them teachers held.
• WRIGHT found that teachers often assumed Asian primary school students would have a poor grasp of English and so left them out of class discussions

Question 4

Institutional racism (INTERNAL)

Answer 4

Institutional racism is discrimination built into the ways institutions such as
schools and colleges operate. This can take several forms:
- MARKETISATION - the Commission for Racial Equality found that ethnicity minority students were more likely to end up in unpopular schools due to a
lack of information/application forms in minority languages.
- ETHNOCENTRIC CURRICULUM - an ethnocentric curriculum is one which promotes one culture over others. COARD argues that in History, white British are presented as bringing ‘civilisation’ to the ‘primitive’ people of the countries they colonised. He argues that
this causes low self-esteem in black students, causing underachievement.
(-) AO3 Some point out Indian and Chinese culture is largely ignored in schools, yet they achieve above the national average. This suggests that an
ethnocentric curriculum isn’t the only cause of ethnic differences in achievement.